Son went to basic, haven't heard from him yet

January 30th, 2013, 07:42 PM

Hi there,
I am just curious. My son went to basic training last Tuesday and we still have not heard from him. He didn't take his cell phone because I guess we all didn't realize he could use it during reception. My question, how long is reception? I cannot believe we haven't heard from him, just want to make sure he made it there ok...

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I don't know how it is where your son is, but when I went through BCT at Ft Sill last year, those of us who didn't have cellphones were allowed to use a battle buddy's to make a quick call home on the first day of training after reception. Don't know if that helps but it's how it was handled when I went through.

Comment

I don't know how it is where your son is, but when I went through BCT at Ft Sill last year, those of us who didn't have cellphones were allowed to use a battle buddy's to make a quick call home on the first day of training after reception. Don't know if that helps but it's how it was handled when I went through.

Ya, that's what I thought too. Maybe he just doesn't feel like be needs to call us, which is fine, I want him to be able to handle it. I guess they maybe would have contacted us if he didn't show?

Hi there,
I am just curious. My son went to basic training last Tuesday and we still have not heard from him. He didn't take his cell phone because I guess we all didn't realize he could use it during reception. My question, how long is reception? I cannot believe we haven't heard from him, just want to make sure he made it there ok...

Thanks

My advice to you is if or when your son does get a chance to call you from a battle buddy's cell, you should remind him to get an address where you can mail him his cellphone when he's downrange and at his company. And I'm sure the cadre at reception has already let your son know that they'll have to wait until they're downrange before they can begin receiving mail.

Understand that every Battalion is different, every company is different, every platoon is different. While some cadre may be relatively relaxed others may be very strict, which means he may not even get to call you until he's allowed to go to a shopette, buy a calling card and call you from a pay phone in his company. That may be a week, three weeks or maybe even a month.

The point is, no matter what is going on your son is safe. He's going though what could be considered drastic changes that will have him very distracted for the time being. He's also undergoing a plethora of orientations, medical and dental readiness, ACU, PT uniform, and basic gear issuance among many other things. Those things are top priority and will occupy the majority of everyday the first couple weeks.

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No news is good news. Keep writing him letters even if he doesn't respond.

+1,000,000 I never had a lot of time to write, especially at first, but receiving those letter were like GOLD, even just about everyday stuff. Hearing everyone else's name get called for mail and not yours S UCK$... Write often; it will be the lift he needs on really hard days and just add to the good ones.